


Fearless Child, Broken Boy

by asexualjuliet



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Childhood Sexual Abuse, i am stupid and all i do is think about them, the entire fic is a study of abuse so tw for that, what’s up everyone i’m back on my bullshit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:00:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29765517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexualjuliet/pseuds/asexualjuliet
Summary: Cassidy knows the truth about Aaron Echolls.(Well, he’ll realize later, not The Truth About Aaron Echolls. Not the secret that took the world by storm. But a secret, a truth. One that somehow got swept under the rug when Aaron did something much, much worse, but something terrible all the same).Cassidy’s not stupid, and he knows the signs.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	Fearless Child, Broken Boy

**Author's Note:**

> bet you thought you’d seen the last of me... joke’s on you; i’m never off my cassidy casablancas bullshit
> 
> takes place sometime before shelly pomroy’s party, for the sake of keeping my own sanity intact.
> 
> tw for discussion of the abuse presented in the show itself
> 
> spoilers through 2x22
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Cassidy knows the truth about Aaron Echolls. 

(Well, he’ll realize later, not  _ The Truth About Aaron Echolls.  _ Not the secret that took the world by storm. But  _ a  _ secret,  _ a  _ truth. One that somehow got swept under the rug when Aaron did something much,  _ much _ worse, but something terrible all the same).

_ (This  _ truth—the one that Cassidy knows—might hit him harder than the reveal of the murderer of Lilly Kane. Because he never really knew Lilly, just knew  _ of _ her, feared her, admired her from afar. He wasn’t Lilly’s biggest fan, but he wasn’t her worst enemy. Logan, though—)

(Logan is his friend. He doesn’t know if Logan sees him that way, too—he’s just Dick’s little brother, a tag-along, an afterthought—but to Cassidy, Logan is a friend).

Logan is his friend, and Cassidy sees the cuts and the bruises, the scars and the cigarette burns. He sees the way Logan flinches when someone moves too fast, sees the fear in his eyes every time he faces his father. 

(Cassidy tries not to see himself in Logan when he notices these things. He tries, and he fails).

He and Logan… they’re different, Cassidy thinks, but they’re also the same. 

Logan is loud and rebellious and unapologetic, a rich, popular asshole who uses sarcasm to shield himself from all the shit life throws at him. He gets drunk and mouths off and skips class without giving a shit about the consequences. 

(And there  _ are  _ consequences. The scars on Logan’s back are proof enough of that).

Cassidy, on the other hand, is quiet and nervous and timid, unable to stand up for himself. Every move he makes is calculated, he thinks before he speaks, and everything he does, he does to survive or conceal or forget. 

But they’ve both got this pain, this hurt, this absolute  _ shit hand  _ that life’s dealt them—the word  _ abuse _ flashes across Cassidy’s brain, and he pushes it away. He’s never been good at dealing with the truth of the matter. 

They’re different, Cassidy knows—Woody never hit him or berated him or threw insults at him, and he’s sure Aaron never… y’know…

(He doesn’t like to think about what happened to him in words. He doesn’t like to think about it, period, but those words make it truer somehow—words like  _ rape, abuse, assault—) _

(They’re closer to the subject than he likes to get. He doesn’t like having the ability to say those things aloud).

So, yeah, Aaron didn’t hurt Logan like that. But they’re both broken _,_ both just kids when the veil of innocence protecting them from the outside world got torn to the ground, when they learned that adults don’t always know best, and that some things are meant to be kept secret. 

Logan tries to keep it secret, too. Cassidy can tell, because he seems to be the only one who’s noticed. And that makes him wonder if Logan knows about  _ him. _

He doesn’t think he does. Logan isn’t the quiet type, not like Cassidy, and if he knew, he’d probably say something. Not to Dick, not to anyone else, but to Cassidy, probably. A quiet acknowledgement, a promise to keep the secret.

Logan probably doesn’t know, Cassidy reasons, because, again, they’re not the same. Logan flinches at the prospect of being hit; Cassidy wants to throw up every time he thinks about sex. Logan’s dad beats him, but doesn’t rape him. Woody raped Cassidy, but didn’t hit him. Logan lost his virginity to Lilly Kane at a party freshman year, and Cassidy lost his five years earlier, in an equipment shed on the outskirts of the baseball field downtown. Logan doesn’t seem to give a shit about anything, and Cassidy cares all too much.

They’re not the same. But they’re similar enough that one day after school, when Dick’s gone to the kitchen to get himself a soda, leaving him and Logan alone to play video games in the living room, he almost lets himself broach the subject.

“Logan,” he says. “Do you—”

He cuts himself off. This is fucking insane. He can’t do this.

His heart is pounding. The controller shakes in his hands, and he tries in vain to maneuver his character away from the monster. Onscreen, Cassidy dies, and—

“What the fuck, man?” Logan asks. “Come  _ on, _ Beaver, I almost had him!”

“S—I’m sorry,” Cassidy says, stumbling over the words.

Dick comes back into the room, grabbing Cassidy’s controller out of his hands, and Cassidy himself is forgotten. 

He thinks it’s probably for the better.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> All mistakes are my own, please let me know if you see any!
> 
> Kudos/Comments are greatly appreciated!
> 
> Find me on tumblr at asexual-juliet.tumblr.com


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